2 week old cough

[SarahLadd]

Results came back negative for mycoplasma.

She's still coughing, wiping her beak, scratching her head, shaking her head, and lethargic.

I'm not sure what to do now.

 

[SarahLadd]

I know this is challenging to look at, but here's a video of the head flicking.

 

[Eggcessive]

Well that is interesting. Not sure where to go from there. Viruses such as infectious bronchitis can cause the snicking or sneezing. Not sure why the eye would be bubbly if not MG, but if a nostril got blocked it could happen.

Chickens can show signs of most respiratory diseases within 3-5 days of exposure. Some will introduce a "guinea pig" chicken with other birds just to see if they become sick, just to make sure that the whole flock doesn't get sick. I would probably talk to the vet at the testing lab.

 

[SarahLadd]

I have to keep going back and looking at my videos to make sure that I'm not crazy and she was actually showing symptoms of illness. she seems to be resolving her symptoms without intervention, and the other chick she's with hasn't been behaving anything but normal. The EE still gives a little snick sometimes, but it's very infrequent, down to maybe once in an hour and a half.

This is really frustrating. If she was legitimately sick with literally anything respiratory, she'd still be a carrier. I'd already resolved to keep my healthy adults from being exposed. It was an easier thing to process when she was looking and acting much sicker than she is now... and the pressure is still there; if she's carrying something, every day is an increased chance to spread it to my healthy birds. But I'm going to feel like a monster killing two outwardly healthy looking baby animals.

 

[Eggcessive]

I think this is a problem many people feel. Some vets feel that mycoplasma is pretty much everywhere, and that healthy birds with good immune symptoms can fight that and other common diseases off. Eventually if you have chickens for a number of years, you may see a disease, and wonder where the heck it came from. Wild birds and other animals can expose chickens, but I want mine to be outside free ranging and happy. Most healthy birds will throw off infections. Baby chicks or sickly chickens may not.

With your negative test and since your chicks have almost totally recovered, I would be inclined to go ahead and introduce the chicks into your flock eventually when they grow larger. As I said before, some will bring in one or two birds to expose first as an experiment. Others with a small flock just introduce them all.

 

[Nambroth]

I was thinking of you and your chicks today. I hope you are all doing well! Were you able to figure out if it was a different respiratory disease such as IB?

 

[ammie1018]

Absolutely right, I had a brainfart about mycoplasma being a bacteria. I think I was thinking of Infectious Bronchitis. I apologize for my misinformation! That said, the Odoban works on bacteria too.
I did look up IB and it's a coronavirus, which if I understand correctly, does encapsulate.

Will just the everyday odoban work or do you need one of the special on. I have had a merkes scare and wanting to clean the coop the best I can.

 

[Nambroth]

Will just the everyday odoban work or do you need one of the special on. I have had a merkes scare and wanting to clean the coop the best I can.

I actually wasn't aware that they make more than one. The one I buy has mixing instructions specifically for killing viruses, on the back label. You want the one that will kill the virus. Drying things on a bright sunny day can also help (it's not guaranteed but it won't hurt), as UV light can weaken or even break the encapsulation on Marek's Virus.

 

[ammie1018]

Ya now they have like a whole bunch to choose from. Don't know if you can get them all at the store or not. I used to use the original green one just for dog pee smell. Haven't bought any in a couple of years, buy from looking at their website it seems they may all be made with the same germ ability